CSU: High Park Fire made city air among world's worst

Jan. 29, 2013

The sun is hidden by smoke from the High Park Fire at N. Overland Trail. The fire has grown to 5,000 acres, prompted the evacuation of dozens of homes and damaged 10 structures. It is at 0 percent containment as of 7 pm on Saturday, June 9, 2012. / Jessica Cuneo/The Coloradoan

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Yes, the air quality in Fort Collins was as bad as it looked while the High Park Fire burned last summer.

Maybe it was worse.

At some times of day when you could see haze while looking down the street, the amount of particulate made air toxicity in Fort Collins about as severe as it is in Beijing, home to some of the most polluted air in the world, said John Volckens, co-author of a Colorado State University study published this month showing how concentrated pollution was here during the High Park Fire.

The study showed that the air quality during the worst days of the fire was worse than the worst air quality days in Mexico City and Los Angeles.

“Smoke levels in the city exceeded regulatory limits by a factor of 10 on certain days,” said Volckens, professor of environmental and radiological health sciences at CSU.

Fort Collins had some of the most pristine air quality in the country on days immediately before the High Park Fire ignited in the foothills west of the city. Once the wildfire began burning, Fort Collins was repeatedly washed in smoke for four weeks.

The study provides hard data conforming what our senses were already telling us: The High Park Fire’s smoke was hazardous to our health.

“Our bodies do a good job of letting us know when we’re receiving acute exposures,” Volckens said.

All the smoke we were breathing is an irritant that can make heart and respiratory diseases worse for those who suffer from them, he said.

Researchers measured the acrid air by asking people to attach test devices to their bodies and wear them for the duration of the fire. The devices measured specific particles people can inhale that can be toxic to the body.

“It lives on your shoulder, it’s tiny and it breathes the same air you’re breathing, so at the end of the day, if you were outside more often on a bad fire day, you’d have more (exposure to air pollution),” said study co-author Chuck Henry, a chemistry professor at CSU.

The study was published in the journal “Environmental Science and Technology.”